74 research outputs found
Theoretical studies of the historical development of the accounting discipline: a review and evidence
No full textMany existing studies of the development of accounting thought have either been atheoretical or have adopted Kuhn's model of scientific growth. The limitations of this 35-year-old model are discussed. Four different general neo-Kuhnian models of scholarly knowledge development are reviewed and compared with reference to an analytical matrix. The models are found to be mutually consistent, with each focusing on a different aspect of development. A composite model is proposed. Based on a hand-crafted database, author co-citation analysis is used to map empirically the entire literature structure of the accounting discipline during two consecutive time periods, 1972–81 and 1982–90. The changing structure of the accounting literature is interpreted using the proposed composite model of scholarly knowledge development
Enhancing audit quality and risk assessment: three essays on the role of machine learning and exogenous data sources
No full textThe advent of innovative technologies, such as data analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP), along with the rapid expansion of Big Data, has profoundly transformed the landscape of the auditing professions (Warren et al., 2015; Yoon et al., 2015; Issa et al., 2016; Appelbaum et al., 2017; Gepp et al., 2018; Sun & Vasarhelyi, 2018). Previous studies have underscored the promising benefits and application contexts of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics in audit practice (Dechow et al., 2011; Barboza et al., 2017; No et al., 2019; Bertomeu et al., 2021; Nasir et al., 2021). However, there are still significant concerns that continue to exist when it comes to using machine learning and data analytics to improve audit quality and risk assessment. Some of the concerns that have been raised include the extraction of information that may not be relevant to the objectives and contexts of the audit, the need to integrate both internal and external data sources to improve decision-making, and the potential for these technologies to be used inappropriately. The three essays in this dissertation aim to address these concerns by illustrating: 1) how to use machine learning toolkits and data analytics properly to extract relevant information from varying data sources, and 2) how to enhance assurance by bridging external information with traditional audit evidence and financial figures.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference
Essays on government reporting and auditing: Govblockchain and Govsmartcontracts
No full textTechnological advances in the assurance profession aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government reporting. One such technology is blockchain, which documents transactions in units of blocks, thus providing transparency and enabling smart audits. This dissertation will demonstrate how government agencies and auditors can employ blockchain and smart contracts to enhance open government and auditing procedures. Specifically, the focus of the dissertation and its contribution will be on applications of advanced technological tools to develop blockchain-based smart contracts in open government, enable greater transparency in government reporting, and enhance government auditing.
The first essay develops a conceptual model that demonstrates how blockchain’s application to government financial and nonfinancial records can present stakeholders with a higher level of transparency. Numerous studies in the accounting and auditing literature have proposed and implemented this technology, emphasizing its potential to remodel the business environment (Abreu, Aparicio, & Costa, 2018; Dai, He, & Yu, 2019; Dai & Vasarhelyi, 2017; Kaaniche & Laurent, 2017; O’Leary, 2017; Rozario & Thomas, 2019; Rozario & Vasarhelyi, 2018; Schmitz & Leoni, 2019). However, as the extant research has focused mainly on the private sector, it is crucial for governmental accounting not to lag behind the private sector (Lapsley & Wright, 2004). Therefore, many studies have attempted to address how to enhance transparency in a formalized way (Criado, Sandoval-Almazan, & Gil-Garcia, 2013; Harrison, Pardo, & Cook, 2012; Kassen, 2013). In recent years, massive changes to the government reporting requirements have taken place, reflecting the government’s recognition of the need for a more open evidence-based practice. Government agencies currently use qualitative methods to complete the reporting process; however, this is far from an objectively efficient method to allow for effective public oversight. The open government’s objective is to have systems that include unrestricted access to their records, procedures, and data for public review and engagement. Also, this paper’s a conceptual model has the potential to aid automating the government’s budgeting, financial reporting, and planning. The conceptual model was tested, and the results compared to the current US government agencies’ open data practice. The results demonstrate that blockchain's application to financial and non-financial data can provide stakeholders with a higher level of transparency in government reporting.
The second essay develops a methodology whereby blockchain-based smart contracts can be implemented as a decentralized system that systematically documents financial and nonfinancial events between many parties in a provable and robust process. With a large number of transactions associated with government contracts being executed daily and a limited audit capacity, government auditors are seeking more automated approaches to detect and investigate anomalies and exceptions. The proposed methodology can enable real-time compliance auditing through integrated data. This paper proposes a conceptual model that processes government contracts into smart contracts to conduct state governmental agencies’ compliance audits in real-time. For example, after the agency receives requested goods, the smart contract confirms whether the receipt of goods complies with the conditions specified in the purchase order.
The main contributions of this dissertation are as follows. First, it is one of the few research studies that explain blockchain technology and smart contracts applications in the government reporting domain to meet open government objectives. The second contribution is to compare the currently available blockchain technologies and smart contract applications. The third contribution is determining which of these blockchain technologies is the most suitable for use in the government sector. Fourth, this dissertation develops conceptual models to generate better transparency and robotize government compliance audits in governmental accounting and the auditing literature. Finally, it demonstrates the process of testing the proposed methods using the most relevant blockchain and smart contracts in the government sector.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference
Continuous risk monitoring and assessment: CRMA
No full textIn their monograph “Continuous Assurance (CA) for the Now Economy,” Vasarhelyi et al. (2010) introduce Continuous Risk Monitoring and Assessment (CRMA) as a future area of continuous auditing. CRMA is a CA methodology to monitor an organization’s business risks, identify its uncontrolled significant risks, and prioritize audit and risk management procedures for the timely mitigation of such risks. They argue that development of CRMA procedures is necessary to keep maintain the relevance of CA system in a changing audit risk environment. This dissertation discusses the development of CRMA and proposes a methodology encompassing four components: (1) identification of the entity risks, (2) selection of relevant Key Risk Indicators (KRI, Institute of Operation Risk, 2010), (3) use of relevant KRIs to assess the entity’s risk exposure levels, and (4) prioritization of audit and risk management procedures in real time. This framework will assist the auditor in selecting audit procedures in response to changes in the entity’s business risks, facilitating timelier prevention or mitigation of their adverse effects on the entity’s business operations. Addressing those four components guided the development of the proposed methodology of CRMA. To illustrate the use of KRIs to assess and monitor business risks under the proposed CRMA methodology, we discuss the monitoring and assessment of corporate reputation risk using KRIs. We also present a metric that measures the degree of negative public perception of an organization extracted from current social media platforms (specifically, Twitter) as a KRI to represent the organization’s current reputation level and confirm the occurrence of the organization’s reputational damage. We demonstrate the present KRI by measuring Twitter response to two real risk events: Purina’s lawsuit for selling harmful dog food and Starbucks’ “Race Together” campaign. We analyze the Twitter response mentioning these two risk events and measure the degree of the public’s negative perception embedded in them by using the present KRI. We discuss our methods used to perform this analysis and present the results.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Daehyun Moo
Correction to: Gendered behavior as a disadvantage in open source software development
No full textFollowing publication of the original article [1], we have been notified that one more affiliation of the corresponding author is missing. Currently Balasz Vedres affiliation is: 1 Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom It should be: 1 Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; 2 Department of Network and Data Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
A market test of the ranking of accounting journals: An Australian perspective
No full textJournal ranking studies have generally adopted citation techniques or academic perceptions as the basis for assessing journal quality. They have traditionally been a source of information about potential research outlets, new journals, and an aid to developing a consensus about the relative merit of publications for promotion decisions. The widespread adoption of research based funding formulae in tertiary education has had a significant effect on the access of academic departments to funding. While some authors identify this as a cause for concern it is also a motivation to ensure that there is research to identify appropriate rankings and to investigate their application as part of funding formulae. Since part of the department ranking process relies on the ranking of journals in which staff have published, journal ranking studies have become more significant. This study contributes to the area by applying Zeff’s (1996) suggested approach to rank journals using a market test of library holdings. It provides evidence of an important difference in journal rankings for the Australian region that could significantly influence studies of departmental quality. It also contributes insights into the effect on research programs of increased access to journals through electronic databases, new journals and their levels of acceptance and provides a benchmark for considering individual library holdings
The impact of new technologies on the accounting profession: A bibliometric review
No full textThis article aims to analyze the scientific production on the impact of new technologies, such as blockchain, big data and artificial intelligence, on the professional day-to-day of accountants, quantifying the articles published by year, title of origin, citation, journal impact, as well as identifying publications by author, affiliation and country. 71 studies are analyzed using bibliometric techniques supported by the VOSviewer software. From the main conclusions, it appears that the journal with the most articles published on the subject is the Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting, with 11 published papers and the most influential author in the area and with one of the best h-index is Miklos Vasarhelyi
Public auditing, analytics, and big data in the modern economy
No full textThere is an increasing recognition in the public audit profession that the emergence of big data as well as the growing use of analytics by audit clients has brought new concerns and opportunities. The first chapter introduces and identifies a number of these issues as that are facing the auditor in the modern economy. The second chapter primarily addresses one of these concern: what is the extant research on analytical procedures in the audit engagement? This dissertation proposes that the answers to these issues should start with an examination of the extant external audit research. However, an updated review of this research does not exist. Accordingly, 301 papers are identified regarding analytical procedures in the audit engagement. These papers are organized by technique, audit phase, and other attributes for understanding. This analysis is then presented as an External Audit Analytics (EAA) framework, which is subsequently expanded with the concepts of business analytics. Specifically, this synthesis organizes this literature, thereby offering guidelines regarding possible approaches for more complex and data driven analytics in the engagement. The third chapter elaborates and expands upon the next six issues and discusses additional aspects for contemplation by researchers and the profession. The fourth chapter discusses the issues of Big Data when it is being considered as Audit Evidence, particularly in the context of external big data. In this age of big data many sources of evidence are untraceable and their provenance unverifiable. This chapter provides guidance regarding provenance of big data, allowing it to be regarded as reliable evidence for external auditors. Finally, the fifth chapter concludes. These chapters discuss and illuminate broadly many issues facing the profession since clients are more automated and are capturing more data. These chapters also contribute to audit literature regarding external audit analytics and reliability of big data audit evidence. Big data and analytics are dramatically changing the business environment and their processes. Business methods are changing, capabilities are being added, anachronistic functions are being eliminated, and processes are being substantially accelerated. The same paradigm change should occur with the audit profession, and this dissertation provides some of the needed ideas to motivate such a shift.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Deniz Appelbau
Aradus pictellus
No full textAradus pictellusKERZHNER,1972 (Figs 12-18) M a t e r i a l e x a m i n e d: BRITISH COLUMBIA: 1♂ 4♀♀. Goldstream, 12.viii.1923 (K.F. Auden) [UBCZ]; 1♂, id., 15.viii.1923 (K.F. Auden) [UBCZ]; 2♂♂, Victoria, 25.ix.1923 (K.F. Auden) [UBCZ]¸ 1♂[EHCI]. Described from Russian Primorsk Territory, however only few records are reported to date from Russia and Korea (HEISS 2001). The series from Canada was compared with paratypes from Siberia and the habitually very similar Aradus obtectus VASARHELYI, 1988, which was described from Romania in Europe and later reported as transpalaearctic, reaching even Japan (HEISS 2001, NAGASHIMA & SHONO 2012). Detailed comparison of the male genitalic structures of Siberian, Canadian and European specimens by senior author did not show any differences, an overlooked fact which confirms now the suspicion, that they all belong to the same widely distributed taxon. As pictellus KERZHNER, 1972 has priority, the following synonymy is proposed: Aradus pictellus KERZHNER, 1972 = Aradus obtectus VASARHELYI, 1988, nov. syn.Published as part of Heiss, Ernst & Scudder, Geoffrey G. E., 2019, Aradidae (Heteroptera) new to North America and Canada, with some additional provincial and state records for Canada and the USA, pp. 821-829 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 51 (2) on page 824, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.373863
A vision of an ENHanced ANalytic Constituent Environment: ENHANCE
No full textConstituent demands for improved transparency in governmental reporting have been increasing since the recent (2008-2009) financial crisis in the U.S. that impacted the financial well-being of a number of governmental entities at both state and local levels. Since that time several governmental entities in the U.S. have launched open data portals. But to-date these initiatives do not incorporate robust analytic capabilities to satisfy constituent inquiries. The purpose of this research is to present an ENHanced ANalytic Constituent Environment (ENHANCE) framework, facilitated by open government data, that fulfills the analytic requirements of the various governmental stakeholders, such as citizens, analysts, bond investors, creditors, vendors, auditors, and oversight officials. The first step in introducing this analytic capability is the availability of open governmental data, ideally presented in a standardized and easily usable format. The second step is that of providing a series of analytic ‘apps’ that can provide meaningful information to the entity’s stakeholders. The third step is the development of the ENHANCE framework within which apps can function, acting upon the standardized government data, to support constituent analytic requirements. A fourth step encompasses developing an ecosystem to provide additional feature and function to the user interaction with ENHANCE and support ENHANCE in the evolving environment in which it operates. This research contributes to academic literature by proposing an ENHanced ANalytic Constituent Environment (ENHANCE) framework where governmental stakeholders can create reports on demand to satisfy their analytic requirements. The concept of a robust analytic tool that provides meaningful analyses over open data is presented in this paper within the context of open government expenditure data. The ENHANCE concept provides capabilities to support an ‘armchair auditor’ activity (O’Leary, 2015). This research describes the concept of an audit ecosystem, that is, a natural progression in the deployment of computer-based CA/CM tools. An initial definition for an audit ecosystem is provided, stated at this point as a holistic approach to the design and development of a technology-driven framework to provide overall management and control of the audit technology components employed, and coordination of the activities of the participants involved. It is feasible that an ecosystem tailored to embellish and support ENHANCE capabilities can be developed and deployed. This paper provides a background on Design Science Research Methodology and describes the initial work undertaken using DSRM to drive the design and development of the ENHANCE framework, the app recommender system which comprises a significant technical part of the framework, and an audit ecosystem. In addition, this research provides a literature review of current practices with respect to open data initiatives and transparency in government financial reporting.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Stephen Kozlowsk
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